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Dangerous Compassions

making tamales, embroidering maps

Hello, reader. How you doing? I saw a video about some displaced Mexican people embroidering maps. It’s beautiful and sad. The Spanish as spoken in the video is comprehensible to me. The video is short but made me think a lot. I’m thinking about home maps art vs craft memories history who we preserve history… Read More »

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Dangerous Compassions

letter to the person who stole my trike

Dear person who stole my trike, I really loved that trike, and I’m sad you stole it. It was blue, upright, and the back wheels had been redrilled so the spokes could be replaced with a thicker gauge, for hundreds of dollars. I’m sorry you’re in a place where stealing from disabled people in community… Read More »

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Dangerous Compassions

deleting dead people from my contacts

Hello, reader. How are you doing? I’ve been crying and growling this morning. It’s because I was deleting dead people from my contacts. I don’t want these people to be dead. I need more rituals for grief. Is it painful for you, deleting dead people from your contacts? I hate it. Some had multiple email… Read More »

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Dangerous Compassions

suffering

Hello, reader.  How you doing?  Life is too short for all this suffering.  I wish I could give you a lot of delicious Ethiopian food.  We deny ourselves pleasures a lot of the time.  Whether that’s because of money or some psychological thing. I wish I could give you any and all of the good… Read More »

Categories
Dangerous Compassions

rice cakes

“Somewhere between crackers and chips, there is a field.  I’ll meet you there, with rice cakes,” I told Ming.  We were in a Safeway grocery store on the Oregon coast, looking for snacks. We’d just found the rice cakes, the dividing line between crackers and chips in a snack isle.  Snacks are big bucks, I… Read More »

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Dangerous Compassions

music my mom liked

Hello, how are you doing?  I’ve been thinking about music my mom liked.  I’ve had a playlist of music I associate with my dad and his death for a long time.  When I feel my grief for my dad stuck inside me, I can hear these tunes and cry.  It’s helpful. But I finally started… Read More »

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Dangerous Compassions

deep respect cub care jaguar

Hello, how are you doing?  I painted this deep respect cub care jaguar.  Thought you might like to see it. Deep respect cub care jaguar is craft paint on reclaimed product packaging card stock.  It’s based on a photo of a sculpture I saw online.  In the sculpture photo, I can see the Jaguar is… Read More »

Categories
Dangerous Compassions

when we leave here

When we leave here, will there be a ceremony to put the crucifixes back up on the walls?  “Oh look, I found another one, stuffed into this desk drawer!” a happy Catholic exclaims. When we leave here, will the neighbors be confused there’s no one singing in German at three in the morning?  No more… Read More »

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Dangerous Compassions

trip note

We stopped at a restaurant in Los Alamos that my mom really liked.  It was our last day on the central coast.  We cried. I ordered a dish Mama liked, but without the meat.  Ming ordered the same. trip note This trip note we left for the waitperson is a good summary of the whole… Read More »

Categories
Dangerous Compassions

moonstone beach

We went to Moonstone beach, and it was my first time seeing the ocean in two years, since before my mom died.  You know I was in the desert, those two years. This trip to my homeland is no joyride!  But I do like to find joy everywhere.  This trip is for healing, feeling, facing… Read More »